Dodging Destiny’s Bullet
by HanuuEshe
Summary: They are continually seeing how bad the future can be, just in time to alter it. Currently include 5YG, the virus, and Nathan’s assassination.
1. Chapter 1

-1_**/FUTURE HIRO:**__ Five years ago, a man named Sylar exploded in the heart of the city, changing the world forever./_

It is quick, that first time. It has to be- a large-scale nuclear explosion in New York doesn't allow for a slow response.

Within days Nathan has mobilized containment, relocation, supply and police forces. Mohinder Suresh has been recommended to the White House as the man with the right expertise for evaluating this new threat. Matthew Parkman becomes Nathan's right-hand man. Hiro's name appears on the FBI's most wanted list for the first time, along with Niki Sanders' and Hana Gietlman's. Sylar is presumed dead, but no chances can be taken in this brave new world- his picture is everywhere, the face of the man held responsible for the destruction of the city, his cold brown eyes appraising a satisfyingly terrified populace.

When Peters shows up on his dorrstep one nigh, guilt-ridden and horrified, Nathan can barely find the time to give him some empty words and a fake ID before sending him on his way.

It's almost a relief when Sylar comes for him, not so dead after all.

The years pass. Molly Walker, DL Hawkins, Micah Sanders meet and begin a tenuous new life before Sylar snatches it away for good. The FBI's list of wanted terrorists expands to include the likes of Elle Bishop, St. Joan, and Kensei.

Through it all, Hiro searches for a solution, until one day he finally, finally finds one.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world."

And he does.


	2. Chapter 2

-1_/__**HOWARD LEMAY:**__ On March 20th, 2007 the first case was reported. After that the Shanti virus spread across the globe. A pandemic. It's killed 93 of the world's population to date. The rest of us live in quarantine praying to find a cure./  
_

Shortly after the virus is released, the state of Texas goes into quarantine: Mohinder gets in anyway, bringing Molly with him. What else can he do, with a newly powerful Sylar on the prowl, and Matt stuck in Odessa.

He cures Matt. Then Nathan. Then passes out from blood loss, because on top of the blood that was necessary for to heal them, he had also extracted enough to cure Molly, should the antibodies her own body started producing after her first encounter with the virus prove insufficient to fight off a second infection.

Matt teases him about that when he wakes up, as Molly does a melodramatic impression of a swoon in the background and Nathan giggles at his indignation. It's the last chance the four of them have to laugh before the hazmat-wearing Secret Service personnel whisk them away.

Within twelve hours, Mohinder is briefing the President.

Within two days, he finds himself on a jet to the country's best virology lab.

Within four days, Nathan is helping keep the panicked populace calm.

Within ten days, Matt is put in charge of rounding up people who could help find a cure- not only virology specialists, but those with rapid cellular regeneration, and the rare, few individuals who, like Mohinder, have an inborn immunity to the disease.

Within two months, word reaches the White House of Japan's infection.

Within three months Molly is placed in foster care, as her fathers are too busy to care for her.

Within four months, almost all infrastructure has broken down. Nathan is killed trying to stop Manhattan from descending into anarchy.

Two days after that, news of Mohinder's existence leaks out. There isn't enough security in the world to stop the resulting mob from tearing him into pieces, desperate for the cure.

Within five months, there isn't a place on the Earth untouched by the virus.

It takes eight more for Peter Petrelli to show up, and offer hope of reversing the calamity.


	3. Chapter 3

-1_/__**NATHAN:**__ ... and it changed my life. At first, I was afraid. But I'm -- I'm not afraid anymore. I'm here to tell you the truth. I have the ability --/  
_

"--to fly."

The world didn't change when Nathan revealed his ability, Not all at once, at any rate.

But with the met humans now out in the open, it followed, slowly, inevitably, that the world would turn against them. Too many Sylars, whose power drove them mad. Too many Kenseis, who held humankind in contempt. Too many Teds and Mayas, whose horribly destructive powers were almost impossible to control.

Peter, Nathan, and Matt became targets, wanted by bloodthirsty masses and a scapegoat-desperate government. They fled underground, followed closely by their family, their friends, and their enemies.

The decide to stick close together. Dangerous, but these days their were plenty of wastelands a group their size could disappear- the partially flooded Miami, the nuked New York, the anarchy of New Orleans, the ruins of Huston, the frozen Seattle. It was simply a matter of picking one and settling in for the long haul.

And it is for the long haul. The carve out a constantly-threatened existence in the city full of hardship and bloodshed that one lets up to recuperate its strength. They grow food on rooftops and abandoned apartments. They live in heavily fortified skyscrapers. They school their children in survival and self-reliance, and pray that by the time they are grown they will no longer need those skills.

God doesn't seem to listen.

The days are full of danger and scarcity, interspaced with the odd bought of bloodshed, disease, and death. As they skip by, so do people: Micah to a bullet through the heart, Elle to a tank, Mohinder to a chest infection that would have been laughably easy to sure could they only have gotten the supplies, Nathan a botched amputation when gangrene set in. Matt goes out for a walk one night and is never heard from again. Monica throws herself off a twenty story building without utilizing any of the seven ways she knows how to safely break her fall.

This leaves Molly, alone, waiting for the day when she accumulates enough favors to ask Hiro to send her back to a better time. She can almost be happy when it arrives, even if it comes with some rather big strings.

"You cannot save your parents," he makes her promise. "You cannot stop Sylar. And you must let Nathan tell the world he has an ability.

She promises.

Later she will find it funny, how a person can lie and speak the truth at the same time, just before she pulls the trigger a second time.


End file.
